An east London car mechanic is facing eviction from his garage after falling £112,000 into debt with his landlord.Len Maloney, who has worked at JC Motors in Haggerston for over 40 years, said his rent had become unaffordable, as it had more than doubled in the space of just two years.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I've come down to try and stop the eviction of my business, which is a business that serves
00:21a local community.
00:22Behind me is a lot of my customers, and they are just here supporting me and really trying
00:29best to get City Council to come and meet with them to try and help them to understand
00:32that an affordable rent policy for social value business is very, very important.
00:36I mean, I've been there for, you know, in 1980 when I walked in my school uniform, so
00:41what I'm witnessing is a lot has been removed in the past, and they're painting all the
00:45businesses with the same brush, and I don't think that's fair.
00:47I think businesses that serve the community should have a fair rent to continue supporting
00:52the community.
00:53What do you want to see the Mayor do to bring that about?
00:56Well, I mean, he's got to really look into, you know, number one, he needs to save my
01:01business, and he needs to understand how long I've been there and what I actually do.
01:04So I want the Mayor to at least get in touch with, speak to Places for London and explain
01:09to them, or reprogram them to understand that social value businesses are very important
01:13to the community.
01:14We are the ones who keep the community together.
01:16So I mean, what I'm seeing at the moment is Places for London morphing these businesses,
01:23bringing these businesses in, they're just morphing it into what they're bringing is
01:26not beneficial to the community.
01:28So I'm a bit sad about that.
01:30And also, I actually think Sadiq Khan, the TfL should inspire businesses in their portfolio
01:37to take on more young people, more apprentices, that is so important.